The police are looking for 10 teenagers suspected in at least six robberies in Riverside Park and on Riverside Drive. WNBC reports that two to 10 suspects, black males ranging in age from 13 to 17 years old, have been involved in each robbery. The most recent one was on Wednesday where "10 men assaulted a 28-year-old man in Riverside Park and stole his back pack," and there was another a few weeks ago where......

Is Manhattan ready to buy in bulk? The NY Sun is reporting on a Costco store possibly moving in to Manhattan's Upper West Side, between 59th and 61st streets. Not everyone is embracing the idea, and local officials, labor unions and the community "may block the outlet from opening at a time when New York consumers could use the access to the lower prices available at the discount chain." One major point for the opposition......

A number of people who saw at least six dogs were left in a sweltering car--with the windows closed-- were so outraged that they, per WABC 7 Eyewitness News, "liberated the animals and then blasted their owner" on Saturday afternoon. Upper West Side residents claimed the dogs had been alone in the car for more than an hour, and, after watching the pups pant away, finally one person let the dogs out (it's unclear......

Doormen noticed a townhouse on West 73rd Street was on fire and ran across the street to alert the residents. WCBS 2 reports that one resident is grateful, noting how the room she was just in exploded soon after. Eight firefighters and one civilian had minor injuries and it's unclear what caused the blaze. Another resident, whose belongings were destroyed and cat was killed, suspects it's the wiring, saying the building's landlord/owner "refused to fix......

Police believe the same suspect is behind seven muggings that have taken place on the Upper West Side/ Morningside Heights since April. According to the Post, he "first punches his victim in the face, then demands cash and valuables." The attacks have been on six woman and one man, many concentrated around West 92nd Street--at Columbus and West 92nd Street, West End and West 92nd, on West 92nd off West End, West 81st and......

Ah, Spring. A time when some men woo women with flowers and fancy dinners, while others simply rappel off their roofs and through their windows. The Post has an exclusive on a lovesick construction worker who became so enamored with an unidentified Upper West Side woman that he decided to take his courtship to a repellent level (ha!) by swinging into her apartment through her bathroom window. The suspect, 29-year-old Flavio Quito, became smitten with......

Long live the king: Barney Greengrass, the “Sturgeon King,” is 100 years old today, and to celebrate the centennial the restaurant is turning back the cash register to 1908 with a special menu. (Though the retail and mail-order side of the business will stay in 2008.) Customers can pay their respects to the Upper West Side institution by stopping in for a herring plate that costs 60 cents, 15 cent coffee, or a sturgeon sandwich for $1.75 (normally $17.50). ...

A 15-year-old Upper East Side resident was fatally shot after leaving a Sweet 16 party at the 133 West 90th Street in Manhattan. Maurice McIver had been shot in the groin around 1 a.m. yesterday, outside the Wise Towers housing project; a few hours later at the hospital, he "was pronounced dead from blood loss because the bullet had severed an artery in his leg." The police think McIver had gotten into a fight with......

Amstel's Beer Bike As far as marketing ideas go, this one may just take the beer-battered cake. May 15th marks a Dutch invasion of the Upper West Side in celebration of Dutch heritage, and the Amsterdam-brewed Amstel Light has kicked in with a takeover of Amsterdam Avenue on that day. They'll be giving away 150 bicycles (which should never be driven after imbibing their brew), offering up drink specials, and doing other things that......

The NYPD released these photos of two men suspected of robbing a townhouse on West 87th Street in Manhattan. Last Friday, the suspects allegedly asked a 10-year-old girl who was playing outside the house if an adult was home. The girl was the daughter of the homeowner's housekeeper, and the owner Mark Appel told the Daily News the men "forced her into the house." They made the girl and her mother stay in a bedroom--Appel......

Car owners on the Upper West Side are facing some tough times. For one, residents as the swank Apthorp apartment building, at West End and West 79th Street, had their "cars evicted" from the building's parking garage . And further north, cars parked along one street have been broken into--sometimes up to 2 to 3 cars a day. At the Apthorp, building inspectors found the garage had numerous violations, leading to the garage management to......

Last night Rat Dog ended their three-night run at the Beacon Theater. The band is led by the Grateful Dead's Bob Weir, and is one of the few left that will bring the hippies out to the Upper West Side (pictured). As for the band, they blogged about their stay, saying, "We’ve gotten to New York City – ‘just like I pictured it’ – and things are getting seriously New Yorked." For those keeping......

Photograph of Paterson, with wife Michelle, stepdaughter Ashley and son Alexander, by Mary Altaffer/AP Just hours after becoming the 55th Governor of NY State, David Paterson and his wife Michelle have admitted to both have extramarital affairs during a rough patch in their marriage. Their joint interview appears in the Daily News, in an article written by columnist Juan Gonzalez. Apparently the Patersons wanted to preempt any further rumors and speculation about affairs. From......

A pit bull named Tyrus is described by the New York Post as being "The Bitch of West 72nd St." and a 'Hell Hound.' Neighbors of the dog's owner at the former Olcott Hotel on the Upper West Side say that Tyrus is a menace who runs wild, poops in the hall and mauls other pets. Residents of The Olcott's 7th floor said that instead of walking Tyrus, his owners simply let the dog run......

The holy Shake Shack in Madison Square Park, adored for its succulent burgers, righteous shakes and hellish lines, will soon expand into multiple locations. Owner Danny Meyer has signed a lease for a branch at 366 Columbus Avenue (at 77th Street), the former home of New Orleans import Jacques-Imo's. The new location will be entirely indoors, enabling delicate Upper Wide Siders to do their time on line out of the elements. And two Shake Shack......

After news spread that Upper West Side institution Cafe La Fortuna would close today, many people came by to bid farewell. The restaurant was packed last night and this morning and afternoon, as people enjoyed the sandwiches, Italian coffee drinks and opera music one last time, lamenting the closing of another standby. One woman arrived with a bouquet of flowers and a card for the staff. Owner Vincent Urwand explained that the West 71st......

Olana: The internets are doomed to failure unless someone invents a way to click on a photo at the end of a wet, snowy day and be immediately teleported to the desired location – like those plush chairs clustered around the bar, where one of Olana’s specialty cocktails would be presented at once. A recent visitor to the new upscale restaurant and bar had kind words for a drink called the Corpse Reviver: a “smooth”......

It would a bit too simplistic to blame the impending closure of La Fortuna, the Upper West Side café that first opened in 1976, entirely on the skyrocketing rents of a turbo-gentrifying neighborhood. While the ever rising rental tide was certainly a factor – the building was taken over by a real-estate group after the previous landlord died – three years still remained on the lease. According to amNY, the closure has more to do......

A judge has finally ruled on a long-simmering dispute between a restaurant and its deliverymen. Last March deliverymen at the popular Vietnamese restaurant Saigon Grill, which has locations in Greenwich Village and on the Upper West Side, demanded a raise from owners Simon and Michelle Nget. The deliverymen reasoned that since the chain was pulling in more than $2 million a month, they ought to earn more than $120 for a 75-hour week. They were......

Today the Times’s Frank Bruni marvels at Manhattan’s new wave of high tone restaurant openings during a recession, and pins the trend not on entrepreneurial bravado but on the fact that it takes years to get a fancy eatery open, and most of these new places were envisioned in flusher economic times. It is true that in 2005, the top fifth of earners in Manhattan made 52 times what the lowest fifth make – $365,826......

Photo: Sherri Jackson "He put his face into the plexiglass separation, the section that is left open, and screamed 'You f------ b----!' and spit at me, which I could feel spray all over my face. I screamed the loudest I have ever screamed in my life: 'Let me out of this cab!'" So ended a ride home to the Upper West Side for 24-year-old Sarah Snedeker, who claims her driver became irate when she insisted......

Frank Bruni, the Times’s top restaurant critic, awards the new 2nd Avenue Deli one star today, which isn’t bad considering it is, despite all the history, still a deli. We popped in there for food and photos just before it reopened at its East 33rd Street location and found the sandwiches (pictured) as monumental as ever; a second visit turned up no sign of the free bowl of gribenes (chicken skin fried in chicken fat)......

Photograph of Uno, a 15-inch beagle who won the Best in Group, by Seth Wenig/AP It's that time of year again - the Westminster Kennel Club will be naming the Best in Show dog tonight. Today is day two (of two) of the Westminster Kennel Club's 132nd Dog show, and the best in group for the sporting, working and toy groups will be determined. Those dogs will face off against the winners of the......

A married couple in the Upper West Side's Ansonia Building are suing their neighbor over her smoking. They claim her smoking is adversely affecting the hallway environment and the health of their four-year-old boy. Johnathan and Jenny Selbin are both lawyers and say their son Charlie's health is at risk due to Galila Huff's chain-smoking in her own apartment. Huff, who owns Caffe La Fenice just a couple blocks down Broadway, has lived at the......

Graphic from CNN It was an exciting night of Super Tuesday primary returns. In the Democratic contest, Hillary Clinton won eight states, including New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and California, but Obama won twelve - Illinois, Connecticut, Alabama, and Missouri - among them (New Mexico is still undecided as the two candidates are in a tie). The NY Times notes that since there were no decisive victories, "an electoral fight...will unfold for weeks to......

Move over Crazy Cat Ladies of New York, a West End Avenue tenant may just have you beat. The Post reports that court papers have been filed by a building owner against 71-year-old tenant Jacqueline Bartone, calling her apartment a "zoo" and listing the pets that reside with her -- including three dogs, several reptiles and cats, "and as many as a dozen birds, including an African Grey parrot and a macaw parrot." Bartone and......

Pinch & S’MAC: Dejected fans of Pinch, the defunct Park Avenue South “pizza by the inch” joint, will not only be reunited with their favorite Pinch pizza, but they can even slather it with the incredible mac-n-cheese from East Village favorite S’MAC. The new cheese and carb cartel will bring the best of both menus together on the Upper West Side, forming a single, unified, belt-busting celebration of starch. If you’ve never tried S’MAC, you’re......

New York Works is a vibrant series of audio portraits of New York characters plying dying trades, like the knife sharpener who still makes house calls and one of the city’s last water tower builders. Though recorded in 2002, the show’s charming portraits of a vanishing New York are more timely than ever – and, in case you missed it, they can be now listened to online. One vignette covers a day in the life......

This week in the Times, Bruni one-stars Lebanese Ilili, saying “Ilili is probably the atmospherically grandest excursion into Middle Eastern cooking that New York has ever seen.” While much of the menu is inconsistent, he loves the kebabs and kaftas. Says the service is “occasionally confused.” And get the essmalieh for dessert. In Dining Briefs, Peter Meehan goes to Abraço Espresso (pictured), says “it’s tiny, it brews excellent coffee, and the little food that it......

Some people may prefer other bakeries, but from the looks of the crowd at the Magnolia Bakery's new Upper West Side location, people are hungering for some heavily frosted cupcakes. If the treats are available, that is. We stopped by the bakery yesterday, a day after its Saturday opening, and the shop was packed. And many of the customers were victim to the opening frenzy, because Magnolia ran out of cupcakes for a spell......